He shouldn't be obligated to concede if it knocks him out of top 8 contention. You only concede when a draw will knock out both players.

He's certainly within his rights to keep the draw and I don't hold it against him. In fact we were even bumping into each other and chatting about the event later and on the next day. However, it's generally accepted that if you're clearly going to lose the game then you should concede at turns.

However, when evaluating the quality of the deck I played, I regard that game (and match) as a win. I do note that time was a concern all day long and my postboard games were much faster, this will influence my card selection somewhat for future events if I play the same deck.

He wasn't slow playing his way to the draw, unlike some people I've seen. The real problem is that there is so much shuffling in these decks that it bleeds off a ton of time. Probably half of that match was spent with one of us searching our deck or shuffling. This is a problem with Caw-Blade, Boros, and every non-Elf green deck.

why should he concede to you? you didnt beat him in time and hes winthin his rights to play for the draw.

i get so sick and tired of reading tournament reports where people complain about how their opponten didnt concede to them.

you wanna win? then beat your opponent in the given time for the match!

I clearly messed that game up in the retelling. I reconstructed the match from memory, but my notes from the match are telling me I messed it up because he doesn't have a 6-point lifegain off Condemn.

I have a Condemn written down that he gained 4 life on. He must have moved the sword onto a Wolf token. It's possible that he missed the interaction and aimed to trade it with the 4/4 land, or maybe he was holding his Hawk back as a blocker for mine. (Or I killed it with a Gideon, perhaps.) I know that I had two swords by the time the game was over since I do have a 5-damage Stoneforge hit listed, and I hit him for 6 with a Colonnade before that. The Titan didn't get Condemned, I'm not sure how I messed that up – that had to have been either a Day of Judgment or a Condemn, judging from the lack of lifegain on his part.

It's also possible that I botched the Colonnade play and blocked something I shouldn't have because we both managed to forget that it picks up the colors.

Correct play is something like this:

He hit me with a Hawk. I stop taking damage from it so it got nullified somehow. He fires off a Vengevine, which I Condemn. Inferno Titan dealt 1 to me, which clearly meant he dealt 2 damage to guys I control. I remember now that I played a Gideon, taunted the Titan, he dealt 3 to me and killed Gideon with Firebreathing. I played a second Gideon and assassinated the Titan. I don't know how I forgot about that play, since that was the point where the game started to turn around.
He hit me for 3 with a Squadron Hawk which put a Wolf token into play. There were a either couple of other creatures and an additional turn here, or bolts to kill Gideon, or something.
The next damage I took was 7 off a Raging Ravine to put me at 4 (clearly I had gotten a block in) and I know I got a Tectonic Edge to deal with that. He had something get Condemned to gain 4 life- my guess is it was the Wolf token he moved the sword onto (meaning it was probably on the Ravine the turn before), and then he only dealt 2 to me with a Birds of Paradise (carrying the sword).

Life totals:
Me- 20, 19 (Tarn), 18 (Hawk), 17 (Titan), 14 (Titan), 11 (Hawk), 4 (Ravine), 2 (BoP)
Him: 20, 23 (Condemn VV), 22 (Mesa), 26 (Condemn WW- I don't remember what WW was supposed to be), 20 (Colonnade), 15 (Stoneforge), dead.

Still don't know if I botched the play with the Colonnade against the Sword of Body and Mind. My notes for this match are pretty much just the life total changes. Hopefully I didn't, since that would mean I probably should have lost that game.